Exclusives

BLOG POST

Legibility and Food Access

Returning to San Francisco from a trip to New York City, I ruminated on my first experience of staying in midtown in the city in which I was raised. The city is different, of course. Times Square has fulfilled its Blade Runner destiny, and blue Grecian “Greatest Coffee in the World” cups have been supplanted with those from Starbucks. What stayed with me, however, was a brief exchange with another attendee of the same conference for which I was in town. “Everything is so expensive” she lamented. “I see people with yogurts and sandwiches and other things that don’t seem to cost too much, but I don’t know where they get them.” “Oh, there’s plenty of stuff around here” I replied. “You just have to look.”

March 2 - Lisa Feldstein

BLOG POST

Olympic Cities and Advanced City-Making - Part 1

Today marks the two year anniversary of the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and 150 days until the start of the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games. Soon millions around the World will turn their attention to London, and in fact to venues across the UK, for the largest sporting and cultural event on Earth.

February 28 - Brent Toderian

FEATURE

Top Planning Trends of 2011-2012

February 27 - Jonathan Nettler

BLOG POST

The Democratization of Big Data

Already a major technology trend, 2012 promises to be a watershed for "big data." A shorthand term for the proliferation of large datasets, big data also refers to the expansion of analytic techniques for teasing meaning from the vast archives of information produced by the digital world. The New York Times' Steve Lohr declared we have entered the "age of big data" in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html">recent article</a> that compared it with another revolutionary research tool -- the microscope.

February 27 - Robert Goodspeed

BLOG POST

Debating Smart Growth

Last Thursday I debated the merits of <a href="http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/about_sg.htm">smart growth</a> with <a href="http://ti.org/antiplanner/">‘Anti-planner’ Randal O'Toole</a> at a <a href="http://www.southfraser.net/2012/01/south-fraser-ontrax-presents-debate-on.html">community forum</a> in Langley, a rapidly-growing suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia. A recording of the Debate and presenters' slide shows are available at <a style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: #005884" href="http://www.southfraser.net/2012/02/smart-growth-debate-media.html">www.southfraser.net/2012/02/smart-growth-debate-media.html</a>. At the end more than three quarters of the audience voted for a <a href="http://www.southfraser.net/2012/01/smart-growth-debate-resolution.html">pro-smart-growth resolution</a>. This may reflect some selection bias – people concerned about sprawl may have been more likely to attend – but I believe that given accurate information most citizens will support smart growth due to its various <a href="http://www.vtpi.org/sg_save.pdf">savings and benefits</a>. Smart growth sometimes faces <a href="/node/54342">organized opposition</a> by critics. It is important that planners respond effectively and professionally. Here is my critique of O'Toole’s claims and some advice for planners who face similar critics.

February 27 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

Information Sources in Planning: "Smart Growth Online" vs. “Freedom Advocates”

Where there are no facts, sentiment rules. - Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West   In my previous two posts I have set the stage for our consideration of information sources in planning by arguing for the relevance of such an effort when it comes to<a href="/node/53999"> (increasingly controversial) urban planning issues</a>, and to situate such in terms of recognizing the<a href="/node/54355"> influence of our world views</a> on the production and use of informational and built environments.

February 22 - Michael Dudley

FEATURE

Is There Such a Thing as ‘Rural’ Gentrification?

February 21 - Thomas Sigler

BLOG POST

Is Tel Aviv the future?

If you run a google.com search for “The Death of Suburbia” you will find about 24,000 ‘hits.’ Some of the gloating over suburbia’s alleged demise is based on the facts that (some) suburbs have been hit hard by the current economic downturn, and that (some) city neighborhoods have become more expensive per square foot than than suburbs. (1) But suburbia as a whole continues to gain population.

February 18 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

Choosing a Grid, or Not

With new research in hand, Fanis Grammenos revisits his analysis of the efficiency of the Simple Grid, and asks what, in fact, should be the preferred layout for a new neighbourhood.

February 14 - Fanis Grammenos

BLOG POST

Information Sources in Planning: Principles

<div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"> "What is an ideology without a space to which it refers, a space which it describes, whose vocabulary and kinks it makes use of, and whose code it embodies?" </div> - Henri Lefebvre, <a href="http://books.google.ca/books/about/The_production_of_space.html?id=SIXcnIoa4MwC&redir_esc=y">The Production of Space</a> p. 44.

February 8 - Michael Dudley

FEATURE

A Brave and Better World? The iPad and the Future of Planning

February 7 - John D. Landis

BLOG POST

Optimal Transport Policy For An Uncertain Future

As I write this column (2 February) the U.S. House Transportation Committee is debating changes in H.R. 3864, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, which will determine future federal transportation policy.

February 2 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

Faculty Using Web 2.0 to Show Images

Lately as I’ve been trying to help students find information for papers and classes, I’ve stumbled across a few new examples of faculty using the web to give others access to visual data from their research.

February 1 - Ann Forsyth

FEATURE

Great Places in Balance With Nature: Beyond Low Impact Development

January 30 - Jonathan Ford

BLOG POST

Information Sources in Planning: Introduction

For more than ten years now I have been a librarian at the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, managing <a href="http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/ius-library">a small library dedicated to planning, geography, urban design and environmental issues</a>. I have been extremely fortunate to have had the freedom in this role to evolve a hybridized career involving research, librarianship, teaching, writing and editing.

January 24 - Michael Dudley

FEATURE

The Smart Math of Mixed-Use Development

Are cities across the country acting negligently in ignoring the property tax implications of different development types? Joseph Minicozzi thinks so, and he's done the math to prove it.

January 23 - Joseph Minicozzi

FEATURE

Mapping Transportation and Health in the United States

What is the relationship between car travel and health outcomes in the United States? Ariel Godwin and Anne Price challenge the claim that more time in the car decreases your health by looking at the impacts of education, income, and employment rates.

January 16 - Anne Price

BLOG POST

Liveblog: ULI Rose Center Kansas City Study Visit

I'm writing from the audience of a presentation this morning in the Hotel Phillips in Kansas City. The presentation will cover the initial observations and recommendations of a national team of experts who've been invited here by Mayor Sly James and his team of Daniel Rose Fellows. The Kansas City Daniel Rose Fellows:

January 13 - Jess Zimbabwe

BLOG POST

The Law of Traffic Congestion, according to "The Flash!"

Across the world, city-builders who understand the complex relationship between land-use, car infrastructure and road congestion, struggle to communicate it in a simple way that resonates with the public. It's now well-demonstrated in transportation demand management (TDM) research and practice that you can't build your way out of traffic congestion by building roads, and in fact the opposite is true - the more free-ways and car lanes you build, the more people drive and the more congestion and other negative results there are.

January 10 - Brent Toderian

FEATURE